Talk:Aircraft Carriers/@comment-26915086-20180912033854
This is an introduction to my newest fleet carrier, the 61kt, 81 plane, 260m long NCS. Argos (CV-4) and the methodology behind her design. NCS. Argos comes from the need for a fleet carrier to supplant the Sparrowhawk class. With the unmitigated success of the Quetzal class of escort carriers, it was decided that with the lessons learned from the CVE projects, a CV could be built which would be more capable than previous classes, with less weight and length. Carriers have the interesting if unenviable honor of being among the easiest ships to compare with contemporaries. Simultaneously however, there are few aspects of any individual carrier that can give it a qualitative edge on similar designs. Argos is armed with 81 aircraft, which would already make her very scary to enemy shipping, launching with 6 runways allows her to get this sizable airwing aloft quickly, which allows for decisive strikes. This could be said of any aircraft carrier with an 81 plane wing and 6 runways. This leads to the question, if two carriers have the same number of aircraft, and the same number of runways, is there any way to deem one superior. Fortunately the answer is yes, but unfortunately the difference between a good and bad design is not nearly as pronounced as it is with gunships. Two ships armed with equal numbers of planes and launching facilities will not necessarily have the same offensive presence in the first wave. The reason for this is elevators. An elevator can only lift a single aircraft at a time onto the flight deck. This means an aircraft carrier which launches a significant portion of its airwing from below deck will only be able to launch at a rate of 1 plane per elevator rather than 1 plane per runway. As space is an absolute premium on carriers, ships can seldom afford to have an elevator for every runway, so launch rate is significantly reduced for aircraft held in a lower deck. The Quetzal class pioneers a solution to this problem. All attack aircraft employed by the ship are stored on the deck, and the below deck hanger stores the fighter wing. As fighters kill aircraft rather than defended targets, they are not instruments which require density to break through as would be the case for attackers. In fact, having the fighter wing spread out allows for more targets to be engaged at once, strengthening the combat air patrol. Argos for her part has the same arrangement, allowing for the greatest possible punch with the attack squadrons while still packing formidable CAP potential. Any time aircraft are stored below decks, a second problem becomes apparent. It is difficult to know when all aircraft are launched if some of them (the last to launch no less) are stored below decks where they cannot be easily viewed. The game offers the camera mode which allows you t scroll to see if any planes are “standing” however this is cumbersome and takes time which could be spent maneuvering. The solution to this again is first employed by the Quetzal class, though in an inferior form to the new Argos class fleet carriers. Windows formed from gates and catwalks allow the commander to see into the hanger space, producing a more visually interesting “semi closed” hanger, and allowing the player to know when the lower deck aircraft have launched without having to check the camera list. On quetzal this opening is in the front, due to boiler placement, there can be no view from behind. By contrast, on Argos, there is an opening on both sides allowing for viewing of the entire hanger space with ease. Speed is always a factor with carriers as they are seldom capable of handling themselves in the face of battleships. Carriers are big, juicy targets which cannot pack the same level of firepower and durability in close as battleships due to the deck space requirements of aircraft launching. The single biggest advantage of carriers is range, as they have a theoretically infinite engagement range. Effective engagement range is far shorter however as the farther you are the longer it will take to recover aircraft for a second strike. Basically, the best position for a carrier is the nearest possible range which cannot be targeted by guns of enemy ships. For this reason, being able to outrun battleships is paramount to the success of any carrier, leading to the insistence on 60kt carriers even when they will be limited to 50kts most of the time. Argos has a top speed just over 61kts, allowing her to fulfil this requirement. AA defense is an additional concern for carriers. There are two main ways of providing such defense to a carrier, the first is AAA, good carriers have prolific flak and LAA to knock down any plane that makes it through the fighters. The second defense is the fighter planes. Fighters are the single best WW2 era air defense system. The fighter makes the most dangerous adversary for a carrier another carrier as a carrier without an air wing might as well be a decoration. The value of fighters cannot be overstated where air protection is concerned as they provide cover for the entire fleet. There is no real innovation with the flak or fighter layout of NCS. Argos, except for using fighters below deck in bulk. She employs numerous light and heavy AA weapons and has 5 fire control directors to make them as accurate as possible. Nonetheless, given her heavy fighter wing (36 fighters) she is exceptional as a counter to carriers. This fits very well with the model set by Quetzal, as that CVE is sometimes referred to as a “wing breaker” this means she is more interested in sinking enemy carriers and crushing their air wings than sinking capital ships. Looking at the deck layout you can see some other minor optimizations, from recessed runway around the elevators to save weight and launch faster, to moving the runways off center away from the island allowing for a natural counter balance (thus saving weight) and allowing for the placement of ten additional aircraft and two additional flak turrets. Overall Argos is not a quantum leap in carrier design, rather she is the culmination of numerous smaller changes in design philosophy. She is undoubtedly more effective per ton than any previous design and has the versatility to operate in most battle fleet compositions. She has a large enough offensive air wing to be of concern to enemy ships and provides nearly complete immunity from air attack to her allies thanks to her massive fighter wing. This allows her to pull her weight in any surface engagement.